CEEAC (Guinea Ecuato., Camerún, Gabón, SantoTomé y Príncipe)

[Loopster]

Que hasta el tato aprovechó el atraco para meter mano a la saca

Por cierto, están probando las "comodidades" de Black Beach los encargados del arsenal y la armeria de Bata, ahora son los "responsables" de que el ejército y la policía no tuvieran munición.

[Esteban]

Más sobre los negocios chinos en Guinea Ecuatorial

Chinese, E. Guinea's FMs vow to enhance bilateral ties
www.chinaview.cn 2007-12-20 22:55:26

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met here with his Equatorial Guinea counterpart Pastor Micha Ondo Bile here Thursday, both vowing to promote bilateral relations.

China-Equatorial Guinea relations have seen all-round and rapid progress in recent years, which features political mutual trust, complimentary economies and fruitful cooperation, Yang said.

Yang stated that China appreciates the Equatorial Guinea government's adherence to the one-China policy, and it will work to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries to boost bilateral relations and cement mutually beneficial cooperation.

Pastor Micha Ondo Bile said the Equatorial Guinea-China relations have witnessed increasing development in 37 years since the two forged diplomatic ties in 1970, adding that Chinese government has provided sincere assistance to the Equatorial Guinea, which the Equatorial Guinean government highly appreciated.

Micha reiterated his government's adherence to the one-China policy and expressed hope that China achieve peaceful reunification at an early date.

The two foreign ministers also exchanged views on international issues of common concern.
Editor: Yan Liang

Y sigue el culebrón de los cameruneses y los ecuatoguineanos

Equato-Guinean Traders Abandon Goods in Douala

The Post (Buea)

NEWS
20 December 2007
Posted to the web 20 December 2007

By Joe Dinga Pefok

Following the spate of aggression, which were mounted against Cameroonians in neighbouring Equatorial Guinea early this month, panic-stricken Equato-Guinean traders who were in Douala to purchase goods reportedly abandoned them and fled to their Consulate.

This also followed the revenge which was meted out on Equato-Guineans living in Buea.

Most of the traders, reports say, had reportedly returned home without their goods, while others are still hanging at their Consulate or with some of their compatriots in Douala.

Also, some Equato-Guinean traders who had hired trucks to transport the goods fled, abandoning them.

It is not clear what the truck drivers have done with the goods.The Post last learned on December 15 from some Cameroonian traders at the Mbopi Market that all the goods the foreigners abandoned in their stores are intact.

The Cameroonian traders unanimously said the Equato-Guinean traders would not have fled as there was no revenge on them in Douala.They assured that they would keep the goods the Equato- Guineans left behind until they eventually come around again for business.

Some of the concerned Eqato-Guinean traders who fled have reportedly contacted their Cameroonian business partners by phone.The Cameroonian traders told The Post that playing any dirty games with the goods would not only tarnish their image to foreign traders, but would as well seriously damage the image of the Mbopi Market which is a major and popular wholesale market in the Central Africa sub-region.

Meanwhile, many traders at the Mbopi Market have complained that the absence of Equato-Guinean traders there is causing some of them huge financial losses.It is worth noting that many Equato-Guinean traders, loaded with 'oil money', come to Douala to buy and not to sell.

http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/ ... 00558.html

[Loopster]

Segundo comunicado de FRENALIGE, recogido en un par de webs de exiliados y opositores

FRENALIGE (FRENTE NACIONAL DE LIBERACION DE GUINEA ECUATORIAL)

Comunicado nº.2/07

FRENALIGE es una organización de carácter cívico militar, que nace en el África del Oeste en el ano 2005, y que por motivos de seguridad y eficacia no se ha dado a conocer a la comunidad nacional e internacional.

FRENALIGE nace para dar fin a la forma arcaica, violenta y corrupta, que gobierno dictatorialmente al pueblo de Guinea Ecuatorial, que preside el dictador TEODORO OBIANG NGUEMA. Ya que por métodos democráticos es absolutamente imposible provocar cualquier cambio que posibilite llevar a nuestro pueblo la democracia, la libertad y el reparto de nuestras riquezas naturales, nos hemos visto obligados a escoger la vía de apremio (ARMAS), que es la única que a viva voz predica siempre el Dictador (”el que quiere poder que haga lo mismo que hice yo”, suele decir).

Como decíamos en nuestro comunicado nº 1, ”estamos dispuestos a luchar en todos los foros y frentes posibles, con las armas que hagan falta en cada momento y en cada situación”.

Ya nadie duda, para bien de nuestro pueblo, de que al régimen ”nguemista” le queda poco tiempo de existencia. Sus torturas y sus latrocinios están contados. El mismo Teodoro Obiang Nguema lo sabe. Ya no es hora de pactos con él ni con su ”clan”, ni tampoco con los partidos políticos que le han ”prestado” sus siglas para adornar a su régimen tiránico de barniz democrático de cara a las potencias occidentales.

En evitación de males mayores, exigimos al dictador:

1º- Que libere a todos los presos políticos y de conciencia que se encuentren en las distintas cárceles de la República de Guinea Ecuatorial.

2º- Que ceda todos sus poderes a un Gobierno de Concentración Nacional.

3º- Que testimonie notarialmente todas y cada una de las cuentas bancarias, personales, de su familia y del Tesoro Público, que estén abiertas en bancos nacionales e internacionales. (alguno se tendría que esconder como esto pase )

Una vez que el dictador haya cumplido estos requisitos, daremos paso a otros mecanismos de regeneración democrática, hasta la total desintegración del régimen ”nguemista. Mientras esto sucede, pedimos a las Fuerzas de Seguridad del Estado (Ejército, Policía Nacional y Gendarmería Nacional) que no acaten más órdenes que las que se refieran al mantenimiento del orden público y lucha contra la delincuencia, a la vez que les pedimos que contribuyan con el nuevo régimen democrático.

También pedimos a los funcionarios, en todos sus niveles y categorías, que no contribuyan más a la continuidad y permanencia del régimen ”nguemista” y colaboren en todo lo posible con FRENALIGE.

A todos unas Felices Fiestas de Navidad y Próspero Año 2008. ¡El año de la victoria final!

VIVA LA REPUBLICA DE GUINEA ECUATORIAL
VIVA FRENALIGE

[Esteban]

¿Qué fue de la familia del exdictador Macías, liquidado por Obiang en el golpe de estado de 1979?

Una pista. Salt lake City

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695241682,00.html

[Esteban]

Lo que le faltaba a Obiang. Tercera superbolsa de gas natural encontrada, esta vez en el bloque I. La bolsa noruega está subiendo pues ha sido la compañía noruega PA Resources la que ha dado con el hallazgo.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/art ... 239846.htm

http://www.energycurrent.com/index.php? ... oryid=8108

[Loopster]

¿¿Bloque uno?? uyuyuyuyuyuyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy que algunos apostaban por el lado contrario y ya hacian planes con otros tipos.

Por cierto, ¿recuerdas a nuestro amigo el supermercenario hispano con los teléfonos satélite con mejor cobertura del mundo? ya te pasaré una relación bastante curiosa que he encontrado con Guinea

[KS]

FRENALIGE?

Es real o una invención de la oposición que solo existe en internet?

Ha operado en Guinea Ecuatorial o en cualquier otro país?

De cuántos miembros dispone?

Sus miembros son nacidos en Guinea Ecuatorial o en el exilio?

Un saludo,
KS

[Loopster]

La primera vez que vi lo de FRENALIGE ya pensé que lo mismo eran una trampa de los de Obiang buscando cazar a cualquiera de la "oposición" que se planteara levantarse en armas contra él.

Si existe más allá de sus propias declaraciones... ni idea, pero ese asalto a Bata estuvo acojonantemente realizado (y que me digan que ciudad española de la costa podria reaccionar contra 60 tios armados con AKs que se planten en un paseo marítimo) sigue sin tener responsables.

[Esteban]

Se aproxima una decisión sobre la extradición de Mann a Guinea Ecuatorial

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2062

[Esteban]

Esto les encantará a los amantes de la geoestrategia energética en el Golfo de Guinea. Análisis en profundidad del Financial Times. Guinea Ecuatorial podría tener problemas debido a la falta de transparencia en sus prácticas comerciales.

Poor governance can boot a country out of the industry

By Hugh Williamson

Published: January 28 2008 06:10 | Last updated: January 28 2008 06:10

The most important international initiative aimed at shedding light on the oil industry’s often murky finances faces a crucial test next month when several African countries may be forced to leave due to their low governance standards.

The decision is expected at a board meeting of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in Accra, Ghana, starting on February 21. Under the EITI, mineral-rich governments should disclose revenues they receive from international oil and gas companies as a step towards curbing malpractice and looting in an industry seen as one of the most corrupt in the world.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea, among other countries could be ejected from the EITI because they have not fulfilled the basic membership criteria, people familiar with the initiative say. The EITI secretariat in Oslo, Norway, declines to comment.

The meeting marks a turning point for the EITI, which has yet to convince industry sceptics that it amounts to much more than a well-meaning but toothless attempt to polish the industry’s tarnished image.

The EITI argues that 3.5bn people live in countries rich in oil, gas and minerals, but that poor governance, especially in Africa, has meant resource endowments have often led to conflict, corruption and poverty.

More than 30 industrialised and developing countries and over 35 companies have publicly backed the initiative, which was set up in 2002 by Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. The G8 industrialised nations last year said they would “provide continuous assistance to strengthen EITI”.

Fifteen nations, including Nigeria, Ghana and Gabon, are seen by the EITI as “candidate countries”, ready to implement the initiative’s set of standards on revenue disclosure. No country has reached full compliance, partly because the validation system – involving independent auditors’ reports – has only recently been agreed.

Nine other countries, including Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome and Principe, have an “indeterminate” status, and the EITI board – comprised of representatives of governments, companies and non-governmental groups – will decide in Ghana whether these can remain linked to the initiative.

Critics argue that some countries are EITI “free riders”, welcoming the limelight of being associated with the initiative, but refusing to challenge corrupt practices at home.

Jonas Moberg, head of the EITI secretariat, admits that the Ghana meeting will be a “real test”. He adds: “We have to show that we can make these tough decisions.”

Civil society groups such as Publish What You Pay, an international NGO alliance, and governments such as Nigeria and Azerbaijan, have been pushing for the free riders to be struck from the initiative’s supporters’ list.

“This is about the EITI’s credibility with the public, and about not diluting what it means to be a member,” says Radhika Sarin of PWYP. Many governments, and some companies, argue that non-compliant countries should be given more time.

The EITI faces many other challenges. Mr Moberg admits that there are “holes in the methodology” EITI promotes for data disclosure, such as that it is largely limited to revenue disclosure, rather than other aspects of the industry’s complex finances. “Things are constantly being improved.” he says.

In addition, several audits already produced by candidate countries have highlighted big reporting discrepancies, according to pressure groups. In Gabon, for instance, PWYP last year pointed to a “mismatch of $186m” between figures provided in the government’s EITI report for 2005 and the figures given to the International Monetary Fund for the same period.

Analysts argue that Nigeria’s disclosure record has also been patchy, even though it is one of the continent’s EITI flag bearers and has taken steps to enshrine transparency into law. Crackdowns on EITI-related NGOs have occurred in Congo and Gabon.

“The initiative relies ultimately on the political will of the implementing parties,” Mr Moberg says.

Nicholas Shaxson, author of Poisoned Wells – the dirty politics of African oil says the track record of African governments and western oil companies in heavily abusing Africa’s resource riches means a degree of scepticism over EITI is appropriate.

“That said, the EITI has made a difference, in opening people’s eyes to the problems in the sector. EITI’s approach is valid – as long as they don’t claim to have comprehensive answers,” he says.

He notes that Angola – a non-member and harsh critic of the EITI – has started publishing more oil industry financial data on government websites. “Angola knows that being seen to be more transparent is important in the current climate. The EITI has been a part of creating that climate.”

Companies – which can pledge to open their books – also need to do more, says Juanita Olaya of Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog. A separate civil society project she runs on revenue transparency in extractive industries is publishing a report in March on the operations of 42 global companies in 21 countries.

“The picture is very mixed. A few companies already publish a great deal, while for most it’s not a common practice – but has to become one,” she concludes.

The new scramble for Africa's resources

By Dino Mahtani

Published: January 28 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 28 2008 02:00

In the past decade, Africa has seen an unprecedented boom in oil and gas investment.

With big companies shut out, or deterred from investing in the Middle East, Africa has by contrast offered multinationals relatively lenient terms and extensive access to its oilfields in the past 15 years. The continent has been able to attract money from the biggest supermajors, from ExxonMobil to Shell, looking to exploit its prolific and relatively untapped geology, particularly in the Gulf of Guinea and North Africa.

It also has the world's highest ratio of "light" and "sweet" crude oil, preferred by refiners in big consuming countries, and 83 per cent of its oil resources comes from fields yielding more than 100m barrels.

In 2006, US President George W Bush laid out a strategy of reducing oil imports from the Middle East - a policy that is likely to result in greater strategic importance for Africa. "The rise of Africa as an energy region is not a short-term trend," says Robert Gillon of John S. Herold, the industry consultancy.

Libya's Sirte Basin is the largest site, holding more than 20 per cent of the continent's 300bn barrels of reserves. The rest lies in 10 big basins, including those in Nigeria, Angola, Algeria and Egypt. Angola and Nigeria, with their large deepwater deposits, are expected to become important producers.

With oil prices so high, Africa has also seen a boom in the exploitation of its marginal fields and investment and interest in new frontiers, from Tullow Oil's significant finds in Ghana and Uganda to China's sudden interest in exploration rights in the failed state of Somalia. Asian companies, particularly state- owned ones from China, have also begun to pile in, challenging the hegemony of the traditional majors.

Research by John S Herold estimates that, between 2002 and 2006, publicly-listed oil companies tripled their spending in Africa, a rate that was 20 per cent more than their spending across the world during the same period.

Yet the effect of increased corporate interest has not always translated to economic well-being for African countries.

Soaring oil prices have threatened to wipe out recent economic gains on what is both the world's poorest continent and its fastest-growing oil and gas exploration zone of the past decade. According to the International Energy Agency, the increase in the cost of oil in 13 non-producing countries, including stable economies such as South Africa, Senegal and Ghana has since 2004 been equivalent to 3 per cent of their combined gross domestic product. This is more than the debt relief and foreign aid received during the same period.

Even in some of Africa's biggest producers, where high oil prices have driven rapid economic growth, poor governance in the use of oil funds as well as high fuel prices brought about by a lack of refining capacity and heavy import bills have added to social woes.

The contrast between the multi-billion dollar international oil industry and the grinding realities of Africa is nowhere more apparent than in Nigeria's Niger Delta, the most prolific zone in the Atlantic basin, from where the US expects to source up to a quarter of its oil imports in the next decade. There, armed militants using an anti-poverty rhetoric have cut a quarter of Nigeria's production in pre-dawn raids on oil facilities and kidnapped scores of oil workers in the past two years, a potent symbol of the kind of disorder that can occur on the doorstep of huge investments.

Much of the capacity being added on the continent may be too far offshore to be affected by the kind of militancy seen in the delta. But US policymakers nevertheless remain deeply concerned about stability in oil-producing zones. In response to this concern, President Bush last year ordered the creation of Africom, a dedicated US military command centre for Africa which is expected to be situated in a yet-to-be chosen country on the continent.

The US military has recently started focusing on West Africa, with a $500m plan to help Saharan states eradicate Islamist cells linked to al-Qaeda that could otherwise threaten stability in oil-producing countries in the region, particularly Nigeria. The co-operation has drawn criticism from human rights groups which say the US is repeating its Middle East mistakes by cosying up to despotic and corrupt regimes on the continent.

Indeed, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, typified US confusion on Africa policy when she described Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea where US supermajors Chevron and ExxonMobil have interests as a "good friend", despite widespread concern over human rights abuses and corruption.

But it is not especially surprising that such mercantile attitudes to Africa persist in this way, with slowing oil production growth in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and hostile and protectionist regimes in the Middle East and Russia increasing paranoia in the west.

Africa's share of oil production is expected to grow to up to 30 per cent of the world total, from roughly 12 per cent in 2006. By 2012, energy consultant IHS expects liquids production to have reached a plateau of about 16m b/d.

Throw into this equation the rising interest of China, other Asian countries and state-owned oil companies from emerging markets, and one has the recipe for a new scramble for Africa - most recently typified by talk of an impending gas mega-deal between Russia's Gazprom and Nigeria.

Across the continent, Chinese state-owned companies have been busy obtaining exploration or supply contracts, often promising billions of dollars in infrastructure development or stepping up military supplies to oil-producing countries. Inevitably, China too has come in for criticism for doing business with autocratic regimes, notably Sudan.

But China's flourishing relationship with Africa looks unstoppable. In 2006, Angola, the fastest-growing oil producer on the continent in recent years, became China's top supplier of oil, notwithstanding the billions of dollars invested by western multinationals in the country's deep offshore sector. Chinese and other Asian companies have begun featuring more prominently in new oil and gas licensing auctions in Africa and there are even signs that Asian companies are ready to start competing with western companies for control of African oil.

Despite Eni, the Italian major, beating Korea's state oil company for control of Burren Energy, the UK listed company with assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is now being courted by two Indian companies.

Where Africa's resources are becoming hot property, big energy producing countries are beginning to push for greater control of their own oil and gas industries, much to the chagrin of the traditional oil majors.

Legal amendments giving Algeria the right to 51 per cent of any hydrocarbons project in the country, government plans to revisit the terms of offshore projects in Nigeria and newly tightened terms and conditions for access to Libyan oil and gas are all policies that have emerged in the past two years.

"We are not seeing the sort of irrational exuberance of five years ago. The Chavez effect is half-cooked in Africa, but it is there and people are thinking about it," says Jon Marks, editorial director of the specialist newsletter, Africa Energy.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a534472c-cad7 ... 07658.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56dd8e0a-cd41 ... 07658.html